Horsham artists puts down his camera for paintbrushes

Horsham artist, Steve Cobb, has five of his original paintings on sale in Horsham’s Art Ache Gallery above Rachel’s Kitchen in the Carfax.

Known locally as a photographer for the West Sussex County Times based in Horsham, Steve was with the paper for nearly thirty years.

Steve said: “The future now sees me taking a new creative direction. My life as an artist began in earnest last December when I was exhibited in the Horsham Museum and Art Gallery to popular approval. Much encouraged I continued to paint and from the end of November. I am offering five framed 20 x 16 original acrylic paintings for sale, for the first time in Horsham.”

The five pictures offered for sale from November 22, to January 9, represent a cross-section of Steve’s work over the last year.

Steve said: “I’ve tried different forms of expression, and when first starting a literal representation of what I saw was the ultimate goal. More recently I’ve tried a much looser approach. After all, as a photographer what use do I have for an accurate reproduction of a subject? I could photograph it and be done with it.

“For me, I’ve come to appreciate the artist has to enter the process more explicitly. The picture must convey more than just a copy of any scene. I want my pictures to convey a mood, my emotional response to a subject. I want to enter the picture as ‘artist’ and transform the image into a feeling, a physical two-dimensional expression of how I respond to the subject.

Sometimes the picture is simply a delight in a particular colour. But isn’t that just an expression of what I feel too?”

You can see more of Steve’s work on his Facebook page at ‘Steve Cobb Artwork’ or you can follow him on Twitter @stevecobb.

Steve added: “Painting for me is a pleasure; an escape from tribulations in life. It is about the enjoyment of facing a blank white rectangle and beginning a journey. The process of painting is interactive and the paint can take me in directions I never intended at the outset. But that is indeed the pleasure.

“The journey, the freedom to take a chance and make mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes lead to something better than I had ever intended.”